Uzhe Mart = уже март = already March!

I can’t believe I have been here for a month already. I feel like my Russian has not improved THAT much, but I feel like it is also a little hard to be able to measure your level of language based on thinking about what you have learned. One language accomplishment for this week was buying a diabetic-friendly cake (online) and picking it up at the market (communication all in Russian). Also I really wanted to buy a Moomin inspiration quote calendar as a gift, but the plastic was already ripped on the box. So, I asked them if I could get a discount because it was already open. They managed to understand my incoherent mumbling and gave me 30% off!

The calendar I got a discount on. “Всегда горячо приветствуй всех тех, кто входит в твой дом” // Always warmly welcome all those who enter your house.

A weird observation I’ve had here is that people are able to understand you completely when you are basically whispering, but when you’re speaking in a normal/loud tone, they are more likely to be confused or ask you to repeat yourself. I think my main struggle with language here is how quietly Russians speak. I understand almost all interactions I have had with locals, but it’s just that I always need them to repeat it because I could not hear them.

I actually have not done that much here recently, but I did come across a privately owned modern art museum. I liked it so much that I actually bought an annual pass there. A day pass is 500₽ ($8.80), but a youth (under 21) annual pass is only 650₽ ($11.44)! Here are some pictures from my favorite temporary exhibitions.

Earlier this week, CIEE took us to Mikhailovsky Theatre to see the Swan Lake ballet. I actually did not really remember the story of Swan Lake, so I was a little confused for some of it. However, it was a great show and I really enjoyed the choreography and music composed for the show. Unfortunately, I did not take great photos of the theatre, but I plan to go back on my own for another ballet/opera.

Inside Mikhailovsky Theatre, photo taken from the very top row.

At the end of one of the later acts.

Another important thing this week was that my host mom’s birthday was on the 2nd! I only managed to know this because her Wi-fi password was her birthdate and year. Last week, I asked her if her birthday was on the 2nd. She was surprised and asked me how I knew. I was in the middle of looking for the Russian word for “password” in dictionary we keep in the kitchen and said “Internet”. I wasn’t done with my sentence, but she reacted very badly to the word “Internet” (as would I), but then I said Internet password. She laughed and realized that her daughter set her Wi-Fi password as her birthday.

I really wanted to do something for her, so I decided the easiest thing for me to do was buy her a cake. However, she does not really eat a lot of sugar (dietary reasons) and I noticed most of her items are from the people with diabetes section of the supermarket (yes, the section exists here). So I ended up going on the Russian local Internet and managed to hunt down a cake without sugar. When it was the day of her birthday, I showed it to her and she was upset/happy and told me that she could not eat sugar. When I did tell her that the cake was sugarless, she was happy, but still a little mad because she said it must have been so expensive (it was like $15). Later that night, I was aware that she was having a dinner party at her house, but I did know that she implied I would be part of it.

One of the cakes at the dinner party (not the one I bought).

Interestingly enough, all of her friends spoke perfect English (my host mom does not) and told me how much my host mom likes me. One funny thing I found out on her birthday was that from all the years/semesters my host mom have been hosting students, I was the first person to be able to find my way home the first day of school with no issues. Every person ended up getting lost and my host mom had to try to fetch them. I thought this was really funny because everyone my host mom has hosted knows little to no Russian when they first arrived. So I can imagine the manhunt my host mom had to go on, to find someone who did not even know how to read a street sign. The location of the apartment is not confusing, but the doorways and the similarities of the apartment buildings threw everyone off. I had a really interesting time during the three-hour dinner party.

When everyone cleared out, I really wanted to help my host mom with dishes because there were so many, but she refused to let me. Her friends told me that my host mom is very unique and always brimming with energy, so I should just listen to her and let her do everything her way. She ended up staying up until 1:30am-ish doing/reorganizing the dishes, but she told me she preferred to do it herself. I was a little sad seeing her stay up so late, but I know she was really happy from the party and was looking forward to skiing the next day (she goes skiing every Saturday). I honestly cannot believe I have been in her home for a month now and it makes me sad to realize that I only have two and a half months left with her, but I am taking everything day-by-day.

Thanks for reading.

До свидания (goodbye).

Justine G.

Жюстин, sometimes Джастин, Жастин, or Жустин.